


Shining in the Sun

by Anefi



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Confessions, M/M, Oblivious Stiles Stilinski, Pining Derek Hale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-11-14 21:26:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18060440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anefi/pseuds/Anefi
Summary: Stiles comes home from his first year of college, and he brings friends. Derek does not handle it well.





	Shining in the Sun

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dr_girlfriend](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dr_girlfriend/gifts).



> Why yes, Boys of Summer by Don Henley IS an absolutely perfect song for a Sterek prompt :)
> 
> ETA: AND NOW THERE IS AN INCREDIBLE PHOTOSET BY [DR_GIRLFRIEND](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dr_girlfriend/pseuds/dr_girlfriend)!!!
> 
>  

He looked good, Derek thought, and immediately wanted to run his own claws down his face. Who was he kidding? Stiles always looked good. Even with greasy hair curling around his ears, a backwards tequila-brand snapback, and a week’s worth of mangy stubble, he’d looked good, practically collapsing into his dad’s arms after his last final and a five-hour drive.

Derek had almost gotten out of the car, mouth toying with a smile, when two more weed-soaked dickheads clambered out of the Jeep behind Stiles.

So he’d glowered, instead, and chucked the little wrapped package back into the backseat, and driven away. The wrapping paper was all fucked up, anyway; it had been there for months.

*

“Did I just see Derek’s car?”

“I guess not,” his dad said. “So, introduce me to your friends.”

 

***

 

So of course he looked good in the park, brown and freckled, long legs eating up the town-watered grass, laughing himself hoarse and squinting into the bright sky as he pretended to—ride a broom? Derek didn’t know.

He didn’t want to know.

He scowled, and ducked into the used book store.

*

The door chime jingled again a few minutes later. “Hey Mrs. Catherty, did you happen to see a brooding, stubbly dude come in here, like a handsome human rain cloud?”

“Who, Derek? Sorry, Stiles, he went out the back.”

 

***

 

And when he walked into the only good pizza place in town and saw three similarly battered and tasteless snapbacks lined up in a congenial argument by the counter, he snarled and turned on his heel right at the door, before he did anything embarrassing, like say hello.

*

“Order up for—hey, Derek! Wait, is he coming back?”

Stiles narrowed his eyes at the hastily retreating shoulders hunched into a leather jacket. “I got it,” he said dangerously.

 

***

 

Derek slid open the door to the loft with the air of a man facing his own execution, except he’d already done that, and it had felt a _lot_ less inevitable.

Stiles’s face was murderous over the two boxes of pizza in his arms. “Why the hell have you been avoiding me?”

Derek stood aside, resigned. “Come in, Stiles.”

He took the pizza, set it on the counter, and exchanged it for a beat-up crumple of wrapping paper around an oblong box. “Happy birthday,” he said gruffly.

“Don’t think you can distract me with presents like a toddler,” Stiles said, already tearing it open. “Do you even know when my birthday is? Did you lose this in the couch cushions for—” he trailed off. Derek could barely look at him, but he couldn’t look away, either.

“You got me the sunglasses,” Stiles said blankly.

“They’re going to make you look like a douchebag,” Derek grumbled.

“I will never in a million years look as douchey as you,” he shot back absently, as the pads of his fingers traced the frames more delicately than they really deserved.

“Great,” Derek said. “Get out.”

“No,” Stiles said, deceptively mild. “You know I was joking, right? About wanting these?”

Derek had thought—it didn’t matter. “You should have sunglasses,” he said, trying to sound bored. “It’s sunny.”

“Whenever I get sunglasses, I get them for $5 from the thrift store because I lose or break them constantly.”

“So break these,” Derek said. His fingernails dug into his arms, holding himself rigid, but Stiles was never threatened by posturing like that, any more. Brown eyes glinted like they could see right through him.

“You’re an idiot,” Stiles said softly.

Derek scowled. It’s not like he could _argue._

“Did you think I didn’t want to see you?”

“You’re here with your friends from school,” he said.

“Yeah, and I want to introduce them to the other important people in my life, like my dad, and Scott and Lydia. _And you._ ”

“Right,” Derek scoffed bitterly. “Because we’re such good _friends._ ”

Stiles’s mouth dropped open. His cheeks flushed with color as he went stiff with anger. “Oh my god, you _idiot_.” He flailed his arms in Derek’s direction, almost punching him in the face with his Wayfarers. “ _You_ told _me_ you wanted to keep it casual, Derek!”

“You were _leaving!_ ” Derek snapped.

“I haven’t even left the state!”

“You were fine with casual! You said that’s what you wanted!”

“I wanted literally _anything,_ Derek, and if that’s all I could get, I thought—how can you be this stupid? I have never been casual about you, _ever_ in my _life._ ”

Derek stopped short, all his other arguments scattering like mist in the sun as Stiles panted, hands flexing, the echoes of his shout still ringing in the empty apartment. “What are you saying?” Derek asked cautiously.

Stiles slumped, looking bleak, but he’d always been braver than Derek. “I’m in love with an idiot,” he admitted.

 “Yeah?” Derek’s eyes flickered over Stiles’s face as the faintest flicker of hope bloomed to life in his chest.

Stiles threw his hands in the air. “ _Yes._ ”

Derek ducked his head to hide the corner of his mouth tugging up into a smile, but Stiles caught it, and pushed up against him, and then they were kissing.

 

***

 

With no reason to avoid it any longer other than his general dislike of new people, Derek met Travis and Vineeth the next day. He didn’t hate them. Then they were gone, and Derek was still there, and Stiles was too.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi and/or prompt me [on Tumblr](anefan.tumblr.com)!


End file.
